


A Walk Through Paradise, Arizona

by 4Mortea



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bella Swan (mentioned) - Freeform, F/M, Ficlet, One Shot, Phil Dwyer is a vampire, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28144107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4Mortea/pseuds/4Mortea
Summary: Renee didn't act. Shereacted
Relationships: Phil Dwyer/Renée Dwyer
Kudos: 3





	A Walk Through Paradise, Arizona

It’d been a Thursday.

She was as certain of it as she has been of anything in her life. It felt right in the moment, and maybe it would feel right next week, but beyond that…

Well, she was _only_ human.

Thursday felt right. It felt like how the sun caressed her skin that lovely lovely afternoon. For once, the oppressive Arizona heat, was light and encouraging - a friendly gesture from the skies above, one that had compelled her to enjoy a walk around Roadrunner Pond, rather than head straight back home.

Bella wouldn’t mind. Wonderful Bella never did mind.

While Renee enjoyed being with people, she also enjoyed the quieter times. The me times. The times were she could float through life and take in everything around her as it came. In these moments, Renee felt like, well, truthfully? Dust in the wind.

She was used to being called a hurricane, a chaotic force that passes through and disturbed everything in her path. She could see why people thought so, but she was inclined to disagree.

She didn’t think of herself as an uncontrollable agent of the universe, but rather a passive one pushed around by the whims of existence.

She didn’t act. She _reacted._

If the universe put something in her path, how could she possible step aside? Who was she to decline the gifts she had been given? She was merely human.

She knew people looked down on her having been married so young, so briefly…

She had a divorce under her belt before her peers had gotten a degree.

She had been a single mother whose only plan had been the vague concept of freedom.

She discarded jobs and hobbies the same way people discarded the napkins they used up to clean up their messes.

She heard the judgment. She just didn’t care. She could never bring herself to care. Her life was _full._

Full of memories, experiences, people…Her life was rich in ways many could not match because they were too afraid of change. They were too attached and cared too much, too hung up on external expectations.

And maybe.

Maybe that was why the universe put him in her path. No one else would be able to appreciate him they way Renee could.

She remembered Thursday.

Walking through Paradise, with the sweet sour lemon flavour of the gelato melting on her tongue. A breeze, uncharacteristic of the season, like ghostly fingers in her brown hair. One which carried the song. A familiar tune she could never quite place.

Whistling, not a bird, but a person. Or something that had once been one.

She stood still, the little plastic spoon hanging from her lips, as she attempted to place the sound. As she tried to trace where the sweet sweet song was coming from. The little paper cup weakening in her grasp as time passed - cool on her skin and little bit wet.

Guided by the wind, pushed perhaps. She went in the direction of the melody. Even after it stopped, she kept walking. She was unable to let it go, because she wanted to know. She wanted to have.

It was something new, and her life had been getting stale. Stagnant.

She was one day away from shaving her head and going on an impromptu trip to Tucson. She needed this.

It was a Thursday when she found him.

She wasn’t sure where that was exactly. A sense of direction was never her strong suit - she could get lost in her own home, and the only reason she didn’t was Bella.

She found him in the middle of a meal, his teeth puncturing the bag they way they would do a neck. His crimson eyes stared back into her blue ones, unblinking as the blood dripped down his lips, staining his chin red.

To this day, Phil had never told her why he didn’t run that afternoon. He could have easily fled, easily become a mirage under the Arizona sun. She liked to think it was fate he didn’t.

The stood like that - Phil, half hidden by the dumpster’s shadow, crouching over a pile of empty beer cans and blood bags; Renee, with the sun a halo behind her head, a gelato in one hand and a little spoon in the other - for what felt like a lifetime.

Until she broke the silence with a serene smile.

“There’s a little coffee shop off Shea boulevard. I hear they’re having an open mic night tonight. Would you mind joining me?”

**Author's Note:**

> This exists because I'm obsessed with Supernatural and refuse to let go that Ty Olsson played Phil in Braking Dawn. I also think it'd be funny if both Bella and Renee abandon each other in favour of their vampire beaus
> 
> My headcanon is that Phil actually is Benny, so.
> 
> Anyway, for more Renaissance content follow my twilight side blog [leechonspeeddial](https://leechonspeeddial.tumblr.com)


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